Camden Theatre Review | Golda's Balcony

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The Review - THEATRE by DAVID GAVIN
Published: 19 June 2008

Camden Theatre Review | Golda's Balcony | Shaw Theatre |

GOLDA'S BALCONY
Shaw Theatre

THE German polymath Theodor Adorno wrote that “to still write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric”; and watching William Gibson’s elegantly constructed play, I wondered the same thing about drama.
Not that there isn’t much to admire in this Scott Schwartz directed bio-play, which tells the story of Golda Meir, who became Prime Minister of Israel in 1969.
To begin with, it is graced by a powerful performance by Tovah Feldshuh, who made the role hers on Broadway.
However, some of the memories of inhumanity she recounts – not least of the persecution of Jews in Europe – are so harrowing it feels almost indecent to be enjoying Feldshuh’s barnstorming turn, despite the undoubted good intentions of all involved.
This production brought home with new clarity why Samuel Beckett wrote of human cruelty in such an opaque way.
In contrast, this is a nose bleed-inducing, 85 minute whistle-stop dash through Meir’s life, which takes in all the significant moments of the Milwaukee schoolteacher who was called “the Iron Lady” long before Margaret Thatcher enjoyed the epithet.
The Russian pogroms, the halls of the Knesset, and the Yom Kippur war all figure as the dying Meir reminisces in the semi-comfort of a war bunker. Despite the odd lurch towards cliche, it is to the credit of all involved that the show avoids becoming a sentimental atrocity cabaret.
Feldshuh mimes and mimics her way through the show brilliantly and captures Meir’s legendarily acerbic wit with aplomb.
The scenes depicting her money-raising negotiations are highly amusing, and her impersonation of Henry Kissinger absolutely priceless.
This humour is offset by the genuinely chilling account of Meir’s involvement with Israel’s development of a nuclear bomb.
While the production does not benefit from a rather tacky set and some intrusive video projections – especially those of screaming planes – this is a darkly amusing history lesson that deserves to be seen.
Until June 28
0870 033 2600

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